1. Overview

2. Entertainment portrayal of fan mail

3. Responses

4. References

Fan mail is mail sent to a public figure, especially a celebrity, by their admirers or "fans".

In return for a fan's support and admiration, public figures may send an autographed poster, photo, reply letter or note thanking their fans for their encouragement, gifts, and support. Fan mail sent to public figures can be through postal mail, email, social media websites, and other platforms that allow fans and users to communicate with their favorite public figures.

Overview

Fan mail may be in the form of letters, cards, artworks, gifts, comments on social media accounts, and so on. People send fan mail to various public entertainers and public figures such as politicians, athletes, actors, artists, writers, singers, bands, coaches of sport teams, bloggers, and social media stars. Responses can take a great deal of time to come or never come at all. Since a major celebrity or public figure may receive thousands of pieces of fan mail every day, it is usually impossible for him/her to reply to or read them all and as a result his/her or management team, often have the duty of canvassing the incoming mail.^[1]

Entertainment portrayal of fan mail

This gimmick has also been used with fictional characters; special episodes of Beavis and Butt-head featured mail sent to the two, and the Homestar Runner website regularly features E-mails sent to and answered by the cartoon's main antagonist, Strong Bad. Public reading and answering of fan mail was a common recurring element of the cult television program Mystery Science Theater 3000. TLC's third studio album was named FanMail, and was a tribute to fans, with the names of many fans that had sent them fan mail over the years included in the album's insert.

Responses

Many fan mail responses started off as autographed photos but has slowly evolved to communication through social media. Many celebrities and public figures such as Taylor Swift and J. K. Rowling have been known to respond to fans, and sometimes haters, through Tumblr and Twitter. There have been many occasions in which J. K. Rowling has interacted with fans through her [https://twitter.com/jk_rowling?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Twitter account].^[2] Taylor Swift has also been known to go out of her way to respond to her fans and admirers and even send fans gift packages, a form of fan mail, to selected fans who she had learned about through their social media accounts.^[3] While some public figures have responded to fans via social media, it is often known that responses via postal mail by public figures are scarce or nonexistent and often not personal responses but responses by a public figure's management team.

References

• Irena Grafenauer
• Irena Kirszenstein
• Irena Kirszenstein Szewinska
• Irena Kirszenstein-Szewinska
• Irena Krush
• Irena, Missouri
• Irena, MO
• Irena puella
• Irena Santor
• Irena Sendler
• Irena Szewinska
• Irena Szewińska
• Irene
• Irene Adams
• Irene Adler
• Irene and Vernon Castle
• Irene Baker
• Irene Bedard
• Irene Cara
• Irene Castle
• Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale
• Irene Dailey
• Irene Doukaina
• Irene Dunne
• Irene fornes